The Escort

Chapter Three- Dwayne

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” Cameron asked with his haunting yet soothing blue eyes. He had now taken her to the gate of her apartment complex that was heavily guarded with security due to its prestigious guests inside. In fear of him knowing where she lived specifically or someone she knew having used her real first name or commenting on her occupation, she kept him within arms length-which was always safe for a woman of her occupation.

“Yes, thank you Cameron, I’m just really tired.”

“Okay, no problem.” She waited for him to ask for her number as she thanked him again and found an awkward silence to fall between them. “Why don’t I give you my cell phone number?” She asked as his eyes lit up, as if he was testing the waters himself to see if he even stood a chance. He nodded and then handed off his phone, which she took as her fingers danced upon the screen while inserting her number. When handing it back to him, he looked at it the same way he would look at a prized possession.

“Goodnight, Cameron.” With these words, Lia turned on her heels and entered the apartment complex after sliding in her identification card and watched the thick gates to come open as if it was a prison instead of a luxurious complex.

“Goodnight Lia.” He called to her as she became hidden by the large gate and made her way to her apartment building. As she found the doorman to acknowledge her by name and open the door for her, she then found her phone to buzz in her hand. She turned behind her, being able to see Cameron from over the gate as he was facing her with a smile and his phone against his ear. She slid her finger across the screen to answer before hearing his voice on the other end.

“What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asked as her smirk then turned into a wide smile. Lia’s shook her head in disbelief before responding. “That depends…on what you’re doing.” She saw his smile widen before he nervously looked down at the ground, kicking a rock, before looking back up to her. “I wanted to surprise you.” He commented as he waited desperately for her response.

At first, she felt a deep pit form in her stomach as surprises in her world were never anything good. But when she saw his steely blue eyes, she couldn’t help but fall into believing him. With this, they ended their conversation with a sweet “see you tomorrow” before she hung up first. Cameron lingered by however, almost afraid that if he lost sight of her that she would disappear and this night would never have happened. Cameron waited until she was no longer in sight before hitching a ride via taxi while Lia made her way up to her apartment on the very top floor.

She found it odd how an idiotic smile seemed to form on her face as she mindlessly removed her keys from her purse and opened her apartment, having that smile fade into a frown as she saw an unwelcome face in a place she was supposed to feel safe. A lump seemed to form in her throat that made it impossible to speak as her eyes fell to Dwayne who was sitting upon her couch, making himself quite at home. A beer bottle, half drunk had sat on the living room table as his deep tan and devilish green eyes looked to her with contentment.

“Honey...I’m home…” He teased as the door closed behind her, with the sudden shutting noise having caused her to jump. “You didn’t check in after your client this morning…”

“I was...going to appointments and then got another client-”

He looked at her with a deep glare of suspicion.

“But YOU don’t find your clients….I do…” He now moved forward with his elbows on the edges of his knees and his posture having now been hunched over. “You wouldn’t be lying to me right…” He asked as his glare intensified into something from a horror movie as you could cut the tension between them with a plastic utensil.

“Of course not, someone recognized me from my profile-”

Dwayne took a quick drink of his alcoholic beverage before throwing the dark brown bottle against the wall and having it shatter on the wall behind her. A few shards of the glass had scraped the back of her legs and even behind her arm, but she had been too afraid to breathe, let alone aid herself.

“You forget that you’re mine...when I give you a time, you are going to be there…” he now rose from the seat, standing straight from her with his intimidating muscles having caused the fear she had for him to be even greater than when it had begun. “When I text you or call you, if I have to wait...it’s not good. You’re wasting my time...time that can be used helping other girls make their big city dreams come true.” he spoke in a taunting manner as he now had his hand upon her cheeks, forcing them together to force her lips out. An unsettling “hmmph” left his throat as he centered on her mouth, finding their plump nature to be inviting him. “Now why don’t you be a good girl and put those lips to work.” he spoke as he released her jaw and then moved back with his fingers upon his belt.

The moments that followed seemed to go by in slow motion as Lia made her way onto her knees as Dwayne made his way onto her couch. Perhaps it was the arrogance he had or the ability to control her that made her equally annoyed and fearful-or maybe that he had the chance to ruin her life and put her away until she would be of a ripe geriatric age. Regardless, she performed oral s*x as she had done at least a thousand times in her life. Only she couldn’t find a way to enjoy this moment as it was done to purely satisfy him. He forced her to gag to the point of nearly vomiting and even as she tried to pull back for breath, he would make her continue until he saw fit. Even though Dwayne was easy on the eyes to most with his deep honey colored skin and equally captivating eyes, everything inside in regards to his morals and integrity was darker than any form of black she could conjure a name for.

“Almost-” He spoke with a clenched jaw as his fingers dug into her hair, nearly ripping it from her scalp as she gave him what he came for. As she went to pull back as she didn’t want to swallow his excess, she found him to take her by the back of her neck and force her to take him in full. She knew the best way to embrace this was to swallow quickly and so she had done just that before rising with the urgent need to purge. She watched as he made it from the couch and to the door without even a second to thank her or give her a reaction of human decency-he just left her alone. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, however, as she then felt bile begin to rise in her throat and force her to upchuck.

She was able to catch it within the sink and hovered over its sterling design while waiting for another to follow. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was about Dwayne that made her nauseous. Maybe it was the fact she liked him at one point or maybe that he got what she was good at for free. It didn’t sit well with her, her conscience, or her morality-but she told herself it was a small price to pay for the life she had built.

As she was certain the remainder of her stomach contents would stay where intended, she took a bottle of Vodka from the wine rack sitting against her counter upon the floor. Pulling it from its holder, she unscrewed the lid and took a large gulp before returning it to the rack and continuing on with her night. As Lia made her way through the apartment and to her bedroom to ready for bed, her mind wandered to the happiness and pride she once felt upon being in this building. Her walls were graced with Jackson Pollock’s and her clothes were designer from Vera Wang to Louis Vuitton and that was her “everyday clothing”. Her extensions were ranging in the thousands and her nails were done by the most prestigious in the city and this would one time be enough for her to at least smirk. But now, she was only reminded of the acts she had done to have possession of those items. To her, it was similar to blood money-only instead of lifeblood, it was pieces of her soul-or whatever she thought was left of it.

She spent the remainder of the night in her pajamas and reality television-hoping to forget about this night for at least an hour or two. While resting, she had pulled her crimson tea kettle from its spot across from the stove and put it on to heat so she could hopefully make a tea strong enough to wash the remnants of Dwayne from her mouth. She had even gone so far as to listerine her mouth four times before finally finding something other than him to remain upon her tongue. When the taste finally went away, she was able to slowly close her eyes and drift off into a somewhat peaceful sleep, when she wasn’t dreaming about the dangers of her occupation.

The next morning, she was forced awake by the sound of a quick and loud knock upon her apartment door. She threw her head up from its comfortable slumber and peered at the door, hoping it had only been her imagination. However, with it having happened again, she realized it was reality. She groaned to herself before reluctantly moving towards the door before passing the mirror placed directly beside her door. While calling out “one minute” she quickly rubbed the excess of her makeup from beneath her new racoon look and straightened her hair from its messy tangles into a quick ponytail. Having done this within a matter of five seconds, she then moved to the door before another knock came.

“So sorry to bother you, Amelia, you have two gentleman downstairs who are desperate to speak to you.” The doorman spoke as he looked to her with a truly apologetic look. If not for his desire to sleep with the same s*x she did, he would be the perfect boyfriend as he was attractive enough to be mistaken for a model and understood her in a way nobody else seemed to.

“Thank you.” She spoke sweetly before moving closer to him. “Clients?” She asked as his brows shot up.

“For your sake, I hope not...although the tall one is rather...unique.” Lia let out a sigh of relief as she had an idea of who it was whom had been waiting for her.

“Send them up in about ten minutes.” She instructed as the doorman then looked at his watch and tapped on its exterior before then moving towards the hall and back to the lobby. With only ten minutes to make herself go from a hot mess to someone everyone would want to sleep with, she used dry shampoo and perfume to cover for a lack of a shower. She used the very mirror in her living room to do her makeup-complete with her Adele cat eye and prominent red lips that gave her a sort of Marilyn Monroe appearance. Just as she finished placing the final curl in her hair, she found another knock to come from the door. This time, it was the boys.

“What are you doing here?” She asked them in surprise as they both looked around behind them before looking to her nervously.

“We wanted to thank you for last night! What you did was amazing!” Afraid that her business with the two men would be overheard, she motioned them inside quickly and locked the door from the interior as a safety feature.

“How did you know where I lived?”

“You left this at the bar last night…” Logan spoke while proudly holding up her driver’s license and taunting her as she tried to grab it back.

“I was wondering what your real name was...now I know...I wonder what would happen if I search you...is that why you use a fake name?”

“Knock it off.” Perry said forcefully while grabbing the ID from his friend’s grasp and handing it to Lia.

“We wanted to return it to you personally as a way to thank you...and also…” Without another word, Perry pulled out a thick wad of cash from his coat pocket.

“What are you doing?”

“Paying you…”

“You can’t do it like that...it leaves a trace.”

“How? It’s cash…”

“Anyone looking into you would see the amount you pull out-” Logan let out a childish chuckle that both Perry and Lia ignored. “And they would question you and me…”

“So how does it work?”

“The website that you found me, it uses an online metric system. It pulls out amounts like a payment-disguised to not be suspicious. Aside from that, you can’t come here…”

“Nobody else knows what you do?”

“No! And I’d like to keep it that way…”

“Are you like secretly married or something?” Logan teased as he was nudged by Perry.

“We won’t keep you...I just wanted to say thank you. Cameron hasn’t stopped talking about you.” This was finally a portion of the conversation she could show genuine interest in.

“Really?” She quickly noticed the giddy butterfly feeling from within her stomach and recollected herself. “It’s working?”

“Oh yeah...he’s already picking out venues and baby names.” Logan spoke in an attempt to get a rise, but found only glares looking at him. He had also made himself at home just as Dwayne had done, but somehow, more irritating. His feet were positioned upon the glass table and his arms placed behind his head in a resting position before Perry broke her focus from Logan and commented upon the pieces of broken bottle.

“Did something happen?”

“I just slipped last night...fell into the wall.” She covered quickly as Perry nodded with obvious suspicion still lingering.

“So you and Cammy are going out tonight?” Logan spoke in a high pitched voice, with a mixture of sarcasm and jealousy mixed in with his tone.

Lia nodded.

“The bonding was cut short last night due to a...a phone call…”

“Your pimp?”

“Logan!” Perry scolded as Lia slowly nodded to herself before setting her hands on her hips, signaling that what she was about to say would be anything but kind to her uninvited guests.

“Do you really think you want to piss someone off you has a pimp?” Logan’s humored expression turned to fearful as his gaze began to shift frantically from side to side and he then stood with his outline closer to the door.

“Sorry about just showing up.” Perry said apologetically as he made his way towards the door as Logan showed a desperation to leave. “Thank you again for everything...I know we’re paying you and this is what you do and everything, but...thank you…” Logan didn’t speak another word to her or even acknowledge her before he pushed past Perry. Perry took this second before the door closed to turn quickly. “I hope you don’t let Logan scare you off from Cam...he really needs someone like you...someone to boost his self esteem.”

“I’ve got this…” She said with a confident smile as he nodded. “Oh...this was given to us by the bell hop guy…” Perry commented one final time before handing her a solid black envelope with a near royal seal keeping it closed. Amelia’s name was written out in calligraphy with her address printed with some type of printing machine. She let out a reluctant sigh as she knew what was held within this envelope. The one thing each year that she detested-the one thing that pulled her back to when everything had happened…